The disclosure herein relates to a semiconductor manufacturing processing, a mask manufacturing method, and a mask manufacturing method including a mask process correction (MPC) verifying method. Unless context indicates differently, masks described herein refer to photolithography masks (which are also known as photomasks, photoreticles or simply as reticles).
In manufacturing a semiconductor device, a lithography process is typically an essential process for forming a circuit pattern by irradiating light on a photosensitive film coated on a substrate. As line widths are reduced, use of an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source and an electron beam source are being explored as a new generation of light sources. As patterns on a semiconductor device are miniaturized, an optical proximity effect (OPE) is caused by an influence between adjacent patterns. In order to overcome the OPE, optical proximity correction (OPC) and mask process correction (MPC) are used to create a mask which may be used to manufacture semiconductor devices. The OPC may suppress the occurrence of the OPE by correcting a pattern layout on a mask, and the MPC is a method of correcting data about a large number of systematic errors occurring during a process of transferring mask tape-out (MTO) design data as an image on a wafer after the OPC.